Structurally improved seat cushion

ABSTRACT

The present invention relates to a structurally improved seat cushion, comprising a main body which includes a padding part, a backrest part and multiple accordion-shaped vent pipes used to connect the padding and backrest parts. There are guide grooves formed between padding components on the padding and backrest parts, multiple wings extending from two side edges of the padding components and capable of being bent to fit in with a seat adequately and a containing space with an opening at front end of the padding part to fix a wind scooper, while a blower fan is connected with the opening. When the blower fan draws external cooling air into the main body, the cooling air goes quickly out of vent holes along diversion grooves formed by multiple separation boards in the wind scooper, guide grooves and vent pipes, making users feel cool, ventilative and more comfortable when sitting on it.

This application is a Continuation-In-Part of application Ser. No.12/470,495, filed on May 22, 2009, now pending. The patent applicationidentified above is incorporated here by reference in its entirety toprovide continuity of disclosure.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a structurally improved seat cushion,particularly to a seat cushion whose main body contains a wind scooperwith sufficient structural strength to prevent it from being squashedflat, so as to secure unobstructed air flows and better dischargeefficiency of cooling air when the blower fan operates. Besides, thedesign of separated and comfortable contour design folded wing structurefor multiple wings on both side edges of the main body enables the mainbody to be placed on the seat adequately.

2. Description of the Related Art

For chairs currently available in the marketplace, e.g. sofa chairs, carseats or office chairs, they are usually designed to be filled withpreformed foam and sewed and packed by fabric, leather or othermaterials, so that people can sit on these chairs with comfort. Due tolimited air permeability of fabric and leather, however, people easilyfeel sultry and uncomfortable or suffer from eczemas or bedsores ontheir body parts in contact with chairs as a result of sultriness orsweating when sitting on these chairs. In addition, some persons maycover chairs with cushions made of bead strings, bamboo, rattan wares orother materials. Though this can improve situations of sultriness andpoor air permeability temporarily by reducing direct body contact, itcannot effectively achieve quick cooling and ventilation effect whenusers seat themselves on such kinds of chairs.

Therefore, some persons engaged in this field develop a seat cushion asshown in FIG. 7, which comprises a soft plastic board A, a soft plasticsheet B and a fan C. The soft plastic board A is covered by multipleelastic convex strips A1 arranged at regular intervals, and multiple airducts A2 are formed to connect with each other between the elasticconvex strips A1. In addition, multiple air vents A21 are established onthe air ducts A2, which converge into an integrating space A3 at thefront end. Then, the soft plastic sheet B covers the soft plastic boardA to form a closed space. Besides, the fan C is installed inside theintegrating space A3 of the soft plastic board A to blow air into airducts A2 and blow it out of the air vents quickly when the fan C works,so that users can feel cool and comfortable when sitting on the seatcushion. Yet, the aforesaid seat cushion still has certain deficienciesand shortcomings in use, which are described respectively as below:

-   1. when the aforesaid seat cushion bears users' body weight, its    elastic convex strips A1 and air ducts A2 will be squashed flat,    preventing the fan C inside the integrating space A3 from blowing    cooling air into the air ducts A2 directly for heat radiation. As a    result, heat will accumulate in the seat cushion and cannot be    radiated effectively.-   2. for the aforesaid seat cushion, the fan C hangs from the    integrating space A3 inside the soft plastic board A, and there is    no supporting structure built in the folded part of the soft plastic    board A. So when users sit on the cushion, the air ducts A2 will be    squashed flat, causing the fan C to be blocked due to too large wind    resistance.-   3. the soft plastic board A used in the aforesaid seat cushion is in    the shape of a flat board. When the seat cushion is placed on a    chair, it first needs to be folded along the middle of the soft    plastic board A. As there is no foldable structure in the soft    plastic board A, it will cause the soft plastic board A unable to be    placed steadily over the chair, thus making users feel rather    uncomfortable after long periods of sitting.

Nevertheless, many seat cushions of the same kind are produced withhigh-cost but unskillful design that features complexity of overallstructure in order to prevent their air inlets and outlets from beingsquashed and blocked. For such design, air channels are molded withplastics, and peripheries of air outlets bulge like edges of city wallsto prevent the air outlets from being squeezed by human bodies. Thoughsuch design does produce certain effect, these bulging parts that serveas a support make sitters feel very uncomfortable and make them unableto sit on these cushions for a long period of time.

Therefore, how to solve deficiencies and shortcomings of conventionalseat cushions in use is what those engaged in this field need urgentlyto explore and improve.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The primary object of the present invention is to make the main bodycontain a padding part, a backrest part and multiple accordion-shapedvent pipes that can be integrated between the padding part and thebackrest part. There are multiple supporting parts establishedrespectively on the padding part and backrest part, and guide groovesformed between these supporting parts include multiple vent holesinside. In the padding part, a containing space with an opening isformed to fix a wind scooper in front of the guide grooves, and theopening is connected with a blower fan. When the blower fan drawscooling air from outside into the main body, the cooling air goes alongdiversion grooves formed by multiple separation boards inside the windscooper, the guide grooves and vent pipes, and quickly blows out of thevent holes, making users feel cool, ventilative and more comfortablewhen sitting on the cushion.

The secondary object of the present invention is to make the airflowsgenerated by the blower fan (as it operates) guided into the diversiongrooves through the multiple separation boards of the wind scooper.Since the wind scooper has sufficient structural strength to bear theweight of a human body, it is not easy to squash the guide grooves andopening flat and cause blockages when a user sits on the padding part.This allows cooling airflows to go smoothly with less wind resistance tosecure working stability of the blower fan and also reduce the noisecaused by flow disturbance. Besides, this helps prevent overloads on theblower fan and prolongs the overall service life of the cushioneffectively.

Another object of the present invention is to introduce the design of aseparated and comfortable contour design folded wing structure formultiple wings on both side edges of the main body to enable the mainbody to be placed on the seat easily and freely and against the concavebucket back steadily, and to enable the main body to be folded freelyand adequately fit in with various kinds of car seats (for example,racing bucket seats), desk chairs and home chairs (e.g. deck chairs)etc., so that users can feel cool and ventilative when sitting on themain body and feel more comfortable with wrapping of multiple wings.Besides, as the present invention has sufficient structural strength andpacking and supporting properties, it can be used more widely indifferent aspects.

A further object of the present invention is to wrap the main body withat least one layer of a cover made from high density foam as supportsand pads of the vent holes on the surface opposite to the paddingcomponents of the padding part, supplemented by pierced mesh fabric withdense holes and considerable structural strength, so that airflow gomore smoothly along guide grooves formed between the padding componentsand multiple vent holes, thus making users feel more comfortable whensitting on the seat cushion.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a three-dimensional appearance drawing of the presentinvention.

FIG. 2 is a three-dimensional decomposition drawing of the presentinvention from another angle of view.

FIG. 3 is a three-dimensional decomposition drawing of a vent pipeaccording to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 shows three-dimensional decomposition drawings of a blower fanand a wind scooper respectively according to one embodiment of thepresent invention.

FIG. 5 is a sectional drawing of the present invention from a side view.

FIG. 6 is a three-dimensional appearance drawing according to onepreferred embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a three-dimensional decomposition drawing of a conventionalseat cushion.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

Refer to FIGS. 1, 2, 3 and 4, which clearly show that the presentinvention comprises a main body 1, a blower fan 2 and a wind scooper 3,wherein:

The main body 1 includes a padding part 11, a backrest part 12 andmultiple accordion-shaped vent pipes 13, and the vent pipes 13 are fixedbetween the padding part 11 and the backrest part 12 as hollow andconnection tubes to connect the two parts. Multiple padding components111 and 121 are transversely installed on the padding part 11 andbackrest part 12 respectively, and are arranged at regular intervals.There are guide grooves 112 formed between the padding components 111and guide grooves 122 between the padding components 121 to guideairflows, and there are multiple vent holes 113 inside the guide grooves112 and multiple vent holes 123 inside the guide grooves 122. Inaddition, there are multiple wings 114 and 124 established on the sideedges of the padding components 111 and 121 respectively. The paddingpart 11 includes a containing space 14 with an opening 141 in front ofthe guide grooves 112, and then the padding part 11, backrest part 12and multiple vent pipes 13 are packed by a cover 15 of at least onelayer.

Catching grooves 115 are established on the left side of the multiplepadding components 111 of the padding part 11 close to the connectionpart of the main body, while catching grooves 125 are built on the rightside of the multiple padding components 121 of the backrest part 12close to the connection part of the main body, and the catching grooves115 correspond to the catching grooves 125. The vent pipes 13 may be afixed or dismountable structure, and have convex fasteners 131 at bothends, so that the convex fasteners 131 are fastened into the catchinggrooves 115 and 125 respectively on the padding components 111 and 121for a fixing purpose.

The blower fan 2 connects to and hangs from the front of the main body1, and includes a motor 21 and multiple blades 22. It is connected witha power wire 23 that includes a control switch set 231, and is coveredby a cover 24. On the surface of the cover 24, a through hole 241 isopened facing the blower fan 2 rightly to allow external cooling air togo in, and there is an outlet 242 established on the outer side of thethrough hole 241 to connect with the opening 141 in front of the paddingpart 11 for guiding cooling air into the containing space 14.

The wind scooper 3 is fixed inside the containing space 14 of the mainbody 1, and contains multiple bent separation board 31 in it. And thereare multiple diversion grooves 32 formed between the separation boards31 to connect with the opening 141 and guide groove 112 of the paddingpart 11 respectively.

Furthermore, the padding components 111 and 121 and wings 114 and 124 onthe padding part 11 and backrest part 12 may be made from foam, foamedsubstances, elastomeric polymers, rubber, silicon rubber or other softand elastic materials, and are pasted onto the padding part 11 orbackrest part 12 by using adhesives, resin or other adhesive substances.Regarding design of folding lines of the multiple wings 114 and 124, twoside edges of both the padding part 11 and backrest part 12 are wrappedby four pieces of high density foam, while ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA)battens of 1 cm ×0.4 cm×42 cm are used as the padding components 111 and121 on the padding part 11 and backrest part 12 to separate the wings114 and 124 from the main body 1, so as to make the wings 114 and 124 befolded or bent at users' will. As the mainstream, however, car seats arecurrently designed to consist of seats bulging on edges and sinking inthe middle and backs with bucket sheathing. In view of this, themultiple wings 114 and 124 on the two side edges of the main body 1 aremade with the design of separated and comfortable contour design foldedwing structure, so that the main body 1 can be placed on the cushioneasily and freely and lean against the concave bucket-shaped backappropriately. Besides, it also can be folded freely and fit in withvarious kinds of car seats (e.g. racing bucket seats), office chairs andhome chairs (e.g. deck chairs) etc, without difficulty to providesufficient structural strength in addition to sheathing and supportingproperties, thus making it able to be used more widely in differentaspects.

The cover 15 over the main body 1 may be made of foam, mesh fabric, softplastic, synthetic fiber, leather, artificial leather or other materialsthat can be over-molded by means of combining methods, such as sewing oradhesion, while the wind scooper 3 may be made of hard materials such asmetals or plastic, as long as the wind scooper 3 has sufficientstructural strength to support the weight of a human body and preventthe guide grooves 112 and 122 on the padding part 11 from being squashedflat, so as to avoid the situations where airflows are blocked andcannot go smoothly.

However, the cover 15 is formed by coating the surface of the paddingpart 11 opposite to the padding components 111 with high density foam of0.5 cm in thickness to support and pad the multiple vent holes 113,supplemented with a sheet of pierced mesh fabric which has the thicknessof 0.4 cm and considerable supporting strength to make the airflows gomore smoothly along the guide grooves 112 formed between the paddingcomponents 111 and 121 as well as multiple vent holes 113, so that userscan feel more comfortable when sitting on it.

Therefore, the structural improvement of the seat cushion in the presentinvention is made in a logical, simple and effective way by selectingappropriate materials and with a perfect design of comfortable contourdesign folded wing structure, integrating the wind scooper 3 whichprevents from being squashed, accordion-shaped vent pipes 13 andergonomic wings 114 and 124, and with a simple and reasonable design ofvent conduits for the guide grooves 112 and 122. Besides, the paddingcomponents 111 and 121 inside the main body 1 are made of EVA foam assupporting materials. All these demonstrate advantages of the presentinvention and highlight its affordability, commonality and practicalapplicability, as it is made with the simplest and most practicalconcept and a special patent design that achieve its functions to theutmost.

Refer to FIGS. 5 and 6, which clearly show that the backrest part 12 ofthe main body 1 is bent to be almost vertical along the multiple ventpipes 13 as a pivot when the seat cushion of the present invention isused. The accordion-shaped vent pipes 13 can not only be bent easily,but also be made of hollow and flexible materials, so as to effectivelyprevent blockage of airflows inside the hollow vent pipes 13 due tobending. In this way, the padding part 11 and backrest part 12 of themain body 1 can be connected with each other via the vent pipes 13.Then, uses can put the main body 1 on seats in their cars or indoors(rooms or offices, etc.) and fasten it onto the seats by using theelastics, lashings, strips or magic tapes (not indicated in the figures)of the main body 1.

When users connect the plug or igniter (not shown in the figures) of thepower wire 23 linked with the blower fan 2 to an igniter receptacle in aproposed car or an electric outlet of a power supply or external powersource, the blower fan 2 will be supplied with electricity as requiredthrough the power wire 23 and will be controlled via the control switchset 231 to make it start, operate, switched on/off or to adjust the airvolume. As a result, cooling air from a proposed car will be drawn intothe main body 1, and flow through the diversion grooves 32 of the windscooper 3. The cooling air will then go along the guide grooves 112 andmultiple vent pipes 13 of the padding part 11 and the guide grooves 122of the backrest part 12, till it blows out of the vent holes 113 and123. In this way, the cooling air blows out of the main body 1 directlyand quickly through the vent holes 113 and 123, or assists with exchangeof heat accumulated inside the main body 1 to cool down, so that userscan feel cool, ventilative and more comfortable when sitting on the seatcushion.

In the process of drawing in cooling air, the airflows generated by theblower fan 2 as it works will be guided along the separation boards 31of the wind scooper 3 into the diversion grooves 32 respectively. Sincethe wind scooper 3 is made of hard materials and has sufficientstructural strength to bear the weight of a human body, when users siton the padding part 11 of the main body 1, it is not easy for the weightof a human body to squash the guide grooves 112 and the opening 141 infront of it and cause blockages. Thus, the cooling air can go smoothlythrough the main body 1 with reduced wind resistance after entering intothe wind scooper 3, and the air volume will be equally distributed alongthe diversion grooves 32 into the guide groove 112 of the padding part11, so as to secure operational stability of the blower fan 2. Besides,lower wind resistance will help reduce the noise generated by airflowdisturbance and resonance effect, and overloads on the blower fan 2 willbe avoided without unequal distribution of air volume, thus extendingthe overall service life effectively.

Thus, for the present invention, when a user sits on the main body 1,the padding components 111 on the padding part 11 and padding components121 on the backrest part 12 can bear the body weight of the user. As thedesign of separated and comfortable contour design folded wing structureis adopted for the wings 114 and 124 extending from two outer edges ofthe padding components 111 and 121, it enables the main body 1 to beplaced onto the seat easily and freely and lean against the concavebucket-shaped back appropriately. In addition to making the user feelthe cooling and ventilative effect when he/she sits on the main body 1,it also enables the user to feel soft and comfortable through sheathingof the wings 114 and 124, and provides sufficient structural strength inaddition to good sheathing and supporting properties. As a result, it ismore likely that the seat cushion of the present invention is used morewidely in different aspects, thus further promoting its competitiveadvantage in the marketplace.

The above detailed descriptions are given to illustrate one preferredembodiment of the present invention. However, such embodiment shall notbe construed as limiting the appended patent claims of the presentinvention. It is hereby stated that all modifications and equivalentstructural changes made without departing from the spirit and art of thepresent invention shall be included in the patent claims of the presentinvention

In summary, the structural improvement of a seat cushion as disclosed inthe present invention can achieve its functions and objects. Therefore,the present invention is really an excellent one with practicalapplicability and can satisfy the conditions for patentability of autility model. While the application of patent is filed pursuant toapplicable laws, your early approval will be highly appreciated so as toguarantee benefits and rights of the inventor who has worked hard atthis invention. For any question, please do not hesitate to inform theinventor by mail, and the inventor will try his best to cooperate withyou.

1. A structurally improved seat cushion, comprising a main body, ablower fan and a wind scooper, wherein: the main body includes a paddingpart, a backrest part and a multiplicity of hollow accordion-shaped ventpipes connecting the padding part through to the backrest part; both thepadding and backrest parts have multiple padding components that aretransversely arranged at regular intervals, and guide grooves areestablished between the padding components to guide airflows, andmultiple vent holes are further formed inside these guide grooves forair to blow out of the main body; there are multiple wings extendingfrom two outer edges of the padding components, in which the wings canbe bent to fit in with a proposed seat adequately; the padding part hasa containing space with an opening in front of the guide grooves, andthe main body is covered by at least one layer of cover; the blower fanis connected to the opening at the front end of the main body, andconsists of a motor and multiple blades; the blower fan is connectedwith a power wire which is equipped with a control switch set, and iswrapped by a cover; on the surface of the cover, a through hole isopened facing the blower fan for external cooling air to go in, and onthe outer side of the through hole, an outlet is established to connectwith the opening at the front end of the padding part to guide coolingair into the containing space; the wind scooper is fixed in thecontaining space of the main body, and multiple bent separation boardsare installed inside the wind scooper; multiple diversion grooves areformed between the separation boards to connect with the opening andguide grooves in the padding part respectively.
 2. The structurallyimproved seat cushion according to claim 1, wherein the main bodycontains catching grooves, while the vent pipes have convex fasteners attheir front and back ends, so that the convex fasteners are fastenedinto the catching grooves on the padding components for a fixingpurpose.
 3. The structurally improved seat cushion according to claim 1,wherein the padding part and wings of the main body may be maderespectively from foam, foamed substances or elastomeric polymers. 4.The structurally improved seat cushion according to claim 1, wherein thepadding part and wings of the main body may be made from rubber orsilicon rubber.
 5. The structurally improved seat cushion according toclaim 1, wherein the wings of the main body are wrapped by four piecesof high density foam along the side edges of the padding parts andbackrest parts, and the padding components made from EVA foam on thepadding parts and backrest parts are used to separate the wings from themain body, so as to make the wings be freely folded or bent, thusenabling the main body to be easily placed on a proposed seat and leanagainst the concave bucket-shaped back appropriately.
 6. Thestructurally improved seat cushion according to claim 1, wherein thevent pipes of the main body are made of hollow and flexible materials.7. The structurally improved seat cushion according to claim 1, whereinthe surface of the cover on the padding part of the main body oppositeto the padding components is wrapped by a sheet of high density foam assupports and pads of the multiple vent holes, supplemented by a sheet ofpierced mesh fabric with dense holes and supporting structural strength.8. The structurally improved seat cushion according to claim 1, whereinthe cover that wraps the main body may be made of soft plastic.
 9. Thestructurally improved seat cushion according to claim 1, wherein thecover that wraps the main body may be made from foam.
 10. Thestructurally improved seat cushion according to claim 1, wherein thecover that wraps the main body may be made of mesh fabric or artificialfibre.
 11. The structurally improved seat cushion according to claim 1,wherein the cover that wraps the main body may be made of leather orartificial leather.
 12. The structurally improved seat cushion accordingto claim 1, wherein the power wire of the blower fan can be electricallyconnected with a proposed power supply or external power source forsupply of the electricity required by the seat cushion, and the controlswitch set is used to start, switch on/off the blower fan or to adjustthe air volume.
 13. The structurally improved seat cushion according toclaim 1, wherein the wind scooper is made of metal materials or withinjection molding of plastic.